Watertown republican. [volume], February 14, 1906, Magazine Supplement, Image 9

About Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906

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HULL HOUSE.
MISS JANE ADDAMS THE PATRON
SAINT OF A MOST REMARK
ABLE INSTITUTION.
Hall Cain** Has Said that it Is the
Most Complete Social Settlement
in the World—founder a Wonderful
Woman.
The name of Jane Addams is known
to-day from one end of this vast coun
try to another, and included in that
space are thousands of men, women and
children who regard her almost in the
light of a patron saint.
Miss Addams is the founder and
present chief moving spirit of Hull
House, Chicago, the greatest social set
tlement ever known in this country,
Hull House is not really one house
but a series of buildings which have
grown up around one big dwelling
which years ago w r as given over to
Miss Addams for the eccommodation
of the city’s working people. The set
tlement includes a museum, theatre, a
restaurant and various other buildings
which are for the sole use of people to
whom life’s joys are overbalanced by
cares and sorrows.
Hall Caine, the famous author, has
Said that Hull House is the most com-
THE “PATRON SAINT " OF HULL HOUSE.
lete social settlement in the world
nd if this be so it is a fitting menu
lent to the generous heart, sterling
baracter and unbounded sympathy of
is founder. Miss Jane Addams.
f Miss Addams is now forty-five years
id. She was born in .edarville, 111.
J!ter graduating at a well known col
3ge she followed the example of her
ther young women friends and lived
life of ease and pleasure. She spent
jer time mostly in reading and travel
nd gradually the thought came to ker
hat she was absolutely without a pur
ose in life. She saw the poor around
t er, got to know their cares and wor
ies and cast about for a means by
Finch she could do them some good.
>he decided to become a physician and
ook a year’s course in a Philadelphia
ollege. At the end of that time she
ras compelled to rest and so went
.broad to study social conditions. The
■esult of her observations was her re
urn to America and the immediate es
ablishment of a social settlement in
Chicago.
Hull House is situated right in the
leart of Chicago’s poor, in Halstead
itreet. It came to Miss Addams
Jirough Miss Helen Culver, a niece of
its builder and the man for whom the
Jettlement is now named. It had been
built by its owner years ago for his
ywn home and in the belief that the
city would grow that way. It did grow
that way and became one of the most
congested sections of Chicago but was
peopled by all nations and of a class
of humanity unused to the fine usages
of life, unused to social restrictions
and wholly without the pale of refined
society. When Miss Culver learned
that Miss Addams intended founding
a social settlement she gave her Hull
House. From the spacious mansion
which was once to have been a rich
man’s home the settlement has extend
ed into a block of buildings and here
is the genuinely happy home of Chi
cago’s poor.
One of the adjuncts of the settlement
.iS the Jane Club, an organization of
self supporting young women who are
making an effort to live up to the ideal
offered them in the personality of their
benefactor. The club is directly un
der the supervision of Miss Addams
and every employe of the house, and
in fact every one of the settlement, is
responsible personally to her.
Miss Addams believes in the people,
trusts them and looks to them for the
proper disposition of their duties and
their lives and in this way she has
nearer their hearts, nearer their
confidences and nearer making them
tafotertonm Republican.
magazine supplement
see the big of life rather than the
one to which their eyes might other
wise often turn.
She is always to be found by the
lowliest ready to listen to an appeal
for help, ready to give each and every
one her strength and support and as
ready to see and help a stranger as
the oldest habitue of the settlement.
Jane Addams occupies a peculiar po
sition in the public eye. She has no
religious creed or, if she has, she does
not thrust it on her people. All sorts
of doctrines are preached in Hull
House but Miss Addams permits this
through the fact that her generosity
of spirit is big enough to allow every
one his own opinion. She is regarded
with the highest esteem by officials of
the city and is frequently asked to ad
dress large meetings. When she does
this she is listened to with strict at
tention.
Miss. Addams is a brilliant example
of a woman who, having all in life
has not permitted herself to be satis
fied with her lot while others have suf
fered. She has devoted time, money
and all the energy in her big self to
the uplifting of the lowly, to the spirit
ual w T elfare of the poor when that
could be done through kindness alone
and to the bodily comfort and enjoy
ment of these people by giving them
every means within her power to for-
get, when it is possible, that they are
poor, uneducated and socially lacking
according to the standards of the
world.
Napoleon.
“Napoieon going about like a raging Hon
seeking whom he might devour.”
Sir Conan Doyle considers Napo
leon as perhaps the most wonderful
man who ever lived. He writes that
what strikes him most *wcibly is the
lack of finality in his character.
When one decides that he is a com
plete villain, he reads of some noble
trait, then loses his admiration
in some act of incredible meanness.
But here was a you* j man, of
thirty years, with no social advan
tages, very little education, his
family poverty striken, entering a
room in company with Kings, each
and every one jealous of any atten
tions shown by him to any one of
them.
He must have had some private
charm, for his intimate friends loved
and worshipped him, and withal he
was the most amazing and talented
liar that ever lived, and one who told
the truth only to himself.
An originator of great schemes that
seemed fantastic and impossible, his
of detail brought success
where another man would have failed.
With Kin sly Courage.
In Sweden a remarkable story is
told of King Oscar’s courage and re
solution
Th© narrative recounts that a soldier,
a man of immense stature, while lying
under sentence of death secured a.
knife, and defied anyone to enter
his cell.
On hearing of the circumstances the
King drove at once to the prison, and
disregarding the warning of the offici
als. entered the man’s cell alone and
nnar-'-d, locked the door behind him,
and then reasoned a ith the convict.
It would have been a remarkable in
terview, even if the King had taken a
pardon to the convict. But far from
this, he actually explained to the con
demned man why he had decided to
reject any appeal for mercy: yet he so
worked on the man’s feelings that
when, with a farewell handshake, the
King left him, he was totally subdued,
and ready to meet his fate the next
morning like a soldier.
ATTAINS TO FAME.
AN OBSCURE NB \V YORK IA WYBR
RISES TO POWERFUL AND
COMMANDING POSITION .
Beginning With Gas Probings*Charles
E. Hughes Develops .Into Dominat
ing Factdk* in Great Insurance In
vestigations.
In the history of the stage it has
happened more than once that an act
or, not thought to be a star, but with
sound qualities and training has ac
cepted a part rejected by others, and
by careful study and interpretation
made it the most interesting portion ol
the play, and achieved distinction as
the reward of his labors. And now,
before the country to-day, there is an
instance going to show that fortune
for such fidelity is not confined to the
stage.
Ay ror so ago the New York leg
islature ordered an inquiry into th
methods of the gas companies of
Greater New York, and the committee
appointed for the work had some trou
ble in its search for a legal adviser and
examiner of witnesses. The task, for
some reason, did not appeal to the
prominent members of the bar who
we. approached, and the choice fin
ally fell on a man comparatively un
known.' He had to be introduced to
the public outside of legal circles. But
he developed at once into a man of
striking force, and performed his dut
ies so well he earned the applause of
the whole State.
Probes Insurance.
When the legislative inquiry into the
New York insurance irregularities was
ordered the committee decided upon
legal counsel, and again difficulty was
encountered in securing it. The man
who had so satisfactorily served the
gas committee was traveling in Eu
rope, and at the moment could not be
reached with an offer. The offer went
begging for a few days, until at last
a Brooklyn lawyer accepted. Upon his
suggestion, however, the man abroad,
who was really desired, was cabled on
the subject and engaged to assist in
the work. After the work began this
assistant virtually became the lead
ing counsel, and conducted the inves
tigation, which was of national inter
est, in a way to merit and receive
national applause. He has become one
of the most conspicuous figures of to
day.
Man of the Hour.
And so Mr. Charles E. Hughes is the
subject of no little speculation. The
obscure New York lawyer of the other
day is a powerful man of this day.
He is mentioned for both political and
business honors. He might have been
the Republican candidate for mayor in
the recent .municipal campaign, and
had he been might likely have swept
the city. He is now mentioned for
his party’s leadership in next year’s
gubernatorial campaign. He is like
wise suggested for the presidency of
the Mutual Life Insurance Company.
And should he decline preferment in
both of these lines, and decide to stick
to his profession, he is assured of a
vast increase over the practice than he
enjoyed before.
All of which goes to show that it
pays to do whatever you set out to do
with all your heart and mind.
The American Spoke First.
The American in the corner of the
English first-class carriage insisted on
lighting his cigar. The indignant Brit
isher in the other corner protested,
but protested in vain. At the next sta
tion he hailed the guard, with hostile
intent; but the cool American was too
quick for him, “Guard,” he drawled,
“I think you’ll find that this party here
is traveling with a third-class ticket
on him.” Investigation proved him
to be right, and the indignant Britisher
was triumphantly ejected. A spec
tator of the little scene asked the
American how he knew about that
ticket. “Well,” explained the imper
turbable stranger, “the corner was
sticking out of his pocket and I saw
it was the same color as mine.”
MAY BECOME A SENATOR.
Speculation as to Future of Presi
dent Roosevelt After Term
Expires.
When Mr. Roosevelt retires from the
office of President of the United States
he will be but fifty-one years of age,
and just entering upon his intellectual
prime. Will he be content to go into
retirement from politics? If so, he will
have to forego his present love of doing
things. Much, however, depends on
chance. If he shall be as popular when
he retires as he is at present, or half as
popular, he will remain the head of his
party, and should he desire political
preferment, he will get it.
After his retirement from the Presi
dency, George Washington was given
command of the army in our actual but
not declared war with France. John
Quincy Adams made more fame the
nine terms he was in Congress the last
eighteen years of his life than in all
his previous political career. General
Jackson retired from the Presidency in
1837, but he was the head of his party
until his death, in 1845. He dictated his
successor, and his will was law to both
Van Bnren and Polk. Van Buren was
a politician until he died. He elected
Polk in 1844 and defeated Cass in 1848.
General Grant was a candidate for
President in 1880, and had his man
agers acted with a little more sagacity,
he would have been nominated, and per
haps elected. Grover Cleveland was
elected President in 1892 after his re
tirement in tBBq.
Mr. Roosevelt is the youngest of the
Presidents, and when he retires in 1909
he will be nearly two years younger
than Lincoln was at his first inaugural.
He will undoubtedly write a deal o£
history. That he will again hold office
is not quite so certain, but it is ex
ceedingly probable. The United States
Senate would offer an attractive field,
and that slow and dignified body would
doubtless see some times.
SHE BAD THE MORE NERVE.
A Human Interest Incident of the
Metropolis.
Mrs. Charles Nommenson, wife of a
jeweler, of 987 Fulton street, Brooklyn,
was sewing in the second floor sitting
room of their home the other afternoon,
when in walked a burglar with a pistol
in his hand.
“I got in the wrong house by mis- 1
take,” said he, as he doffed his hat with
a bow. “I wanted to see Mrs. Wilson.
I— 1 ”
“Get out!” ordered Mrs. Nommen
son, producing a revolver of her own
and covering the man with the rapidity
of thought. “A man who gets in the
wrong house by mistake doesn’t draw
a revolver on a woman. You are a
thief!”
“I rang the bell and itwas not an
swered. The door was open, so I
came in ”
‘You are a thief!” cried the woman,
rising and keeping her revolver on him.
“I will give you three minutes to geF
cut. If yoa are not gone then, I will
shoot and kill you. One—two ■**
The burglar dodged out of the door.
Mrs. Nommenson was at his heels, her
eyes not leaving him for a second, that
he might not get the drop on her. The
man saw he had lost in the game of
nerve, and he backed down the steps.
At the front door he fumbled at the
latch. He could not open the door. It
seemed to present an opportunity to get
the best of the woman.
“You will have to let me out,” said
the burglar.
u “Not much,” said Mrs. Nommenson,
“you want to get me at close quarters.”
Then as she kept him covered with
her revolver, she told him how to un
latch the complicated lock. She kept
him covered until the street door closed
on him. Then she returned to her sew
ing.
** i —■—■
SENATE'S ATTITUDE RESENTED.
House Committee’s Action on Light
house and Similar Rills-
The House committee on Interstate
and foreign commerce has decided to
hurl defiance at the Senate in connec
tion with all lighthouse measures and
similar bills which must be passed on
by the committee. It has been the
practice of the House to frame these
measures in such a way that a sum not
School Garden l<|^
Scenes at fk*i
of Horticulture.
' . ■galy
specified but not to exceed a certain
amount, is to be used for the particular
improvement. The Senate invariably
has changed such bills so they appro
priate a fixed amount. This system is
regarded by the members of the House
interstate and foreign commerce com
mittee as being conducive to reckless
expenditure and the members of the
committee will refuse to accept such a
bill hereafter and purpose forcing the
Senate to indorse measures which will
encourage the completion of work at
the lowest possible cost and the sav
ing of balances which may remain.
This action of the House committee
is in line with the general opposition
which the House is offering to what is
declared to be the encroachment of the
Senate upon its rights.
*** ■■ ■ 1 ■■■■
Coloring Matter in Food.
Since we have been brought face to
face with the fact that most every
article constituting our daily diet con
tains some artificial coloring matter,
there has been a demand for some
method by which we can test such foods
in order to determine whether or not
they contain artificial coloring. The
Department of Agriculture has but re
cently issued a bulletin containing a
classification of the colors used in food
products as well as methods for their
detection.
SCHOOL GARDEN WORK.
AN IMPORTANT AND ATTRACTIVE
FEATURE OF THE NEWER
EDUCATIONAL METHODS.
Five Years* Course at School of
Horticulture at Hartford, Conn.—
Teaches Gardening and Fruit
Growing in All Its Branches.
There is much growing sentiment
In favor of school garden work in all
parts of the country. If agriculture
is the backbone of the country, so ag
ricultural education is the stem and
fibre of successful farming. School
garden work, as it applies to children
who have never lived on a farm, is a
start toward scientific agricultural
education, and it is a branch of educa
tion of great importance In these times
w so many boys and ‘rls are
drifting toward the cities and away
from the old farms. The tendency of
* TI
HE RAISED THEM HIMSELF.
the drift is cityward; but there are
thousands of people who would like
to live on farms, and would, perhaps,
If they knew something about the
growing of plants, and there is no time
like early youth to instil in the mind a
love of nature and of growing things.
So that considerable success has at
tended the school garden idea and the
nature study idea as it is being ap
plied in a number of the older institu
tions and in some new special schools.
A striking example of this is the
School of Horticulture at Hartford,
Conn.
In the year 1893 the Reveiend
Francis Goodwin, a philanthropic cit- j
isen, gave about 100 acres of land and |
had a board of trustees incorporated
under the name of the Handicraft
Schools of Hartford.
His Idea was to establish a school
for manual training in its different
phases.
* D ® a gradu
ate of the -Massachusetts Ajgricultural
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Vf.fi. oil cofirjsy “'sjt" new y<m, n. y.
College, was secured as Director of thg
School of Horticulture. The buildings
were soon erected, and the School es
tablished as the first public Handicraft
School of Hartford. Besides giving
apprentice work, and a course in hor
ticulture and botany to the boys from
the Watkinson Farm School, the fol
lowing season a course in school gar
dening was established. This course
was opened to the boys and girls from
the city schools.
The school garden work at the
School of Horticulture proved attrac
tive and popular from the first, and
after one or two years of free work
a tuition was charged for each person
who took a garden. This tuition need
not keep any one from having a gar
den, as 100 hours of work for the
School pays any boy’s tuition.
The school garden work has been
systematized, until now there is a five
years’ course In school gardening fop
boys and girls, as well as one to trafa
public school teachers, and one course
for adults which is largely taken by
clergymen of the city.
One of the reasons which has made
this work so popular is because of the
fact that the school shows resulta
Every boy here, every person, for that
matter, who has a garden gets a great
deal more in value from his garden
than the price of the tuition.
The first year the boys begin their
garden work the Ist of May. They
come out *or a lesson one day a week
They come into the classroom, where
each boy receives a notebook, marks
his own attendance, keeps a weather
report, and writes down from dicta
tion, or copies from the blackboard, i
detailed lesson for that day. Witl
the seeds they are given, they then
pass with the instructor to the tool
room, where each boy receives his
tools, and with these he goes to his
garden, where an instructor is always
present to explain the things which he
learns in the classroom. In going to
his garden he passes by the observa
tion plots, which are studied.
The second year the boys begin la
March, taking up the mixing of tbs
soil, potting and repotting ti?e
pepper, and egg plants that they have
in their gardens.
The third year they begin in Febru
ary and take up root-grafting, cutting,
pruning, spraying, digging and setting
trees, spading and caring for grounds^
as well as the garden lessons.
The fourth year boys begin In Jan
uary and take up the maKiug of hoi
beds, management of hotbeds, prun
ing, spraying, soil analysis, plant
foods, testing seeds, planting the gar
den, besides the garden lessons, and
in the autumn they have budding,
fruit culture, and asparagus culture
The fifth year they take up system
atic study of the soil, beginning in
January. All gardens continue until
after the Ist of October.
That the gardens pay is best shown
from a record of the garden yields dur
ing the past summer. A first year boy
got $9.66 worth, a third year boy
$25.64, a fourth year boy $23.03. and
one of tbr clergymen $17.21 worth of
produce in the gardens.
The first year the gardens are 10
x 30 ft., the second year 10 x 40 ft,
the third year 10 x 60 ft., the fourth
year 10 x 80 ft. The clergymen have
gardens 10 x 40 ft. Public school
teachers have gardens 10 x 30 and 10
x 40 ft.; the plan is to give them a
practical training in the method of
training school children in the work*
Already several schools of Hartford
have established gardens in conneo*
tion *dth the schools, and the School
of Horticulture is furnishing instruc
tors of late; those that are giving in
struction were trained at the School
Horticulture. But there is another
thing that the school does. It keeps
the children occupied during the sum
mer months, keeping the boys and
girls off the city streets; because they
come to love their gardens and come
out to work in them, and to work out
their tuition. This is not all, as soon
as the planting is done in the gar
dens the children take up the system
atic study of weeds, they become fa
miliar with them and learn methods
of destroying them. Also at the School
there are about 500 observation plots
containing many of our common
things, and the children learn to know
them in all stagies of development.
People are beginning to realize that
a boy from the School of Horticulture
is better te work in their garden than'
the average man they can get, be
cause the boys will not pull up ex
pensive seedlings as the men so often
do. Frequent calls are made upon Mr.
Hemenway for a boy to take care of
a garden or lawn, and many of the
boys are able to spend most of their
spare time during the summer in this
line of work.